#finding inspiration

hey lovelies! ✨

i've been thinking a lot about creative intuition lately, that quiet inner voice that nudges you toward certain ideas or projects. for the longest time, i was absolutely terrible at listening to it. i'd get these little sparks of inspiration and immediately talk myself out of them. "that's been done before" or "you don't have the skills for that" or my personal favorite: "who do you think you are?"

sound familiar? thought so.

the thing is, i've slowly been learning that my intuition actually knows what it's talking about. those random ideas that pop into my head at 2am or while i'm in the shower? they're not random at all, they're my creative compass trying to guide me toward what truly lights me up.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ recognizing intuition vs. fear ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

the first big challenge was learning to tell the difference between my intuition and my fear. they can sound weirdly similar sometimes!

my intuition tends to feel like excitement mixed with certainty, like "yes! this!" even when it makes no logical sense. it feels light and expansive, like opening a window in a stuffy room.

fear, on the other hand, feels heavy and contracted. it comes with a lot of "shoulds" and worrying about what other people will think. it's the voice that compares my chapter 1 to someone else's chapter 20.

i started keeping track of when these different voices would speak up, and slowly got better at recognizing which was which.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ creating space to listen ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

intuition doesn't shout. it whispers. and in our noisy, constantly-connected world, those whispers can get completely drowned out.

i realized i needed to create actual space to hear myself think. for me, that looks like:

morning pages: three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing before looking at my phone

solo walks without podcasts or music (just me and my thoughts)

intentional boredom: staring out windows, lying on the floor, letting my mind wander

reducing input before trying to create output (no scrolling before creative sessions)

it's amazing what starts to bubble up when you're not constantly drowning it out with other people's voices and ideas.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ the "stupid idea" notebook ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

one of the most helpful tools has been my "stupid idea" notebook, a judgment-free zone where i write down every creative impulse, no matter how ridiculous it seems.

the name is intentionally silly to remind myself not to take it all so seriously. some ideas truly are stupid, and that's perfectly fine! but some turn out to be the beginnings of something meaningful.

the rule is simple: write it all down, evaluate later. this creates a safe space for intuition to speak without immediately being shut down by my inner critic.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ small intuition experiments ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

trusting your intuition is like building a muscle, you start small and work your way up.

i began with low-stakes creative decisions: which color to use in a drawing, which topic to write about in my journal, which route to take on my walk. when something felt intuitively "right," i'd go with it, even if i couldn't explain why.

gradually, i started trusting my intuition with bigger choices: which project to pursue, which opportunities to say yes to, which creative direction to explore.

with each small win, my confidence in my inner guidance grew stronger.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ embracing the "wrong" turns ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

here's the thing about intuition: sometimes it leads you down paths that seem to go nowhere. i've followed creative impulses that resulted in projects i never finished or ideas that didn't work out.

but i'm learning that these aren't failures, they're necessary detours. every "wrong" turn teaches me something i needed to learn or leads me to connections i wouldn't have made otherwise.

intuition isn't finding the most direct path; it's finding YOUR path, with all its twists and surprises.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ letting go of external validation ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

perhaps the hardest part of trusting my creative intuition has been detaching from external validation. when you follow your intuition, you might create things that don't immediately resonate with others or fit neatly into what's trending.

i'm still working on this one, honestly. but i've noticed that my most intuitive creations... the ones that felt most aligned with my inner voice, are ultimately the ones people connect with most deeply, even if the audience is smaller.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ a gentle practice ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

trusting your creative intuition isn't a destination, it's an ongoing practice. some days i'm better at it than others. sometimes fear still wins. but each time i choose to listen to that quiet inner knowing, it gets a little louder, a little clearer.

if you're struggling to trust your own creative voice, start small. create tiny spaces of silence. write down the whispers. follow the sparks of excitement. and be patient with yourself when you forget.

xoxo, mindy 🤍

Thank you @kaylinalexanderbooks for the tag!

Rules: Title says it all 💜

I love to follow in the footsteps of my favorite authors. I've read so many good books in my life. I admire how authors put a lot of hard work and effort into the writing. I love how their stories impacted me. I want to do the same.

I love making my quirky ideas come to life. My mind is constantly brewing ideas. What if this? What if that? How about this? How about that? My mind is storming with so many ideas, I need to get them down. I love seeing those ideas on paper.

I love expressing emotions and pain. I've gone through a lot of pain in my life. My characters go through painful experiences as I did. I like to get deep into their emotions. It helps me heal and persevere.

I like to come up with imaginative settings. I've created worlds after thinking, "I've seen some cool worlds in other fantasy and sci-fi, but I haven't seen this yet." I create places that I would love to visit. I often create places I wish were real. Even when writing in our contemporary world, I like to find ways to use the setting. I like to imagine amazing events happening in ordinary places. The setting is like a character.

I like doing a project that's worth doing. Even if I write 300,000 words of trash, it's still worth it. I've made something. I've accomplished something. I'm a creator holding my creation. I am spending my time on something that requires a lot of brains, perspiration, and determination. I am keeping the craft of writing alive in our generation. I inspire myself. I hope to inspire others.

Then suddenly, all I want to do is write, somehow typing out a thousand clean words an hour.

I've found that it's better to ride those waves instead of trying to force them. Maybe, while I'm struggling to write, something else will come easier - maybe it's art, maybe gardening.

People love to ask artists about the source of their inspiration. The answer varies from artist to artist. For me, inspiration comes in bite-sized pieces from all sorts of places!

One of my favourite places to find a creative spark is out in the forest. I’m not really a hiker so much as a “wanderer” — there are so many interesting nooks and crannies in the woods! I could spend all afternoon poking around the same spot. A neat bug with bright colours might become a tiny faery painting. Some exposed roots knotted together in an interesting way might be the starting point for a lacey pattern on a medieval gown. Sometimes just a particularly shiny rock will inspire a new colour palette!

The the basic premise is Do You Control Fic or Does it Control You?

What I mean by this is broken down into a few sub questions

Do watch a show or read a book & fic ideas just pop into your head?

Are you watching/reading something and you are unsatisfied with the plot, but love the characters, therefore, set out to fix it?

Do you intend to write fic from the start, so you go in search of inspiration

Have you ever completely lost interest in the canon, but still love the characters/fic (therefore, no longer revisit the original source of the fic?

As is usual, this is just a guide. Answer any which way you would like - long answers are always welcome!

As to the first question -- absolutely. But the ideas that a book or a show spawn are usually related to the characters. I want to delve deeper, learn more about them than (usually) a show has given me. Novelist have more of an advantage since -- apart from the cost of paper there are fewer limits on what you can explore unlike in television where costs are a very large concern. If a writer is fairly proficient then the plot will be well realized, but they may have left out significant things about a character. That was certainly the case with Kallus in Star Wars Rebels and what first drew me to the character.

There was one instance where the plot ie the ending was so egregiously bad that I ended up writing a 147 page fan fic to give a proper ending for my Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. Dear sweet baby Jesus, did they fuck up the ending of that third game. And if you fail to stick the landing then no matter how good the journey it will always leave a bad taste in the mouth of viewers and reader and players and they won't go back. It also damages the creator's reputation becuase readers, viewers, players are going to be suspicious of ever trusting that writer (or game company) again.

Since writing is my profession I don't go looking for outside things to find inspiration. the gods know I have enough idea, probably too many to finish in this lifetime, but sometimes there will be something that so inspires or interests, or outrages me that I have to write fanfic. As if the case of Mass Effect and Star Wars has always been a place where I love to play. Because as I've stated -- Star Wars is why I write. It was my inspiration to change careers.